‘Barbie’ Broke Records, but Studios Employed Fewer Female Directors on 2023’s Top Films

Austin Butler landed a highly coveted role in Hollywood when he was cast to bring Elvis Presley to life in Baz Luhrmann‘s biopic Elvis, and he faced stiff competition to book the Oscar-nominated role.

Seemingly not wasting one of its 111 offbeat minutes, sprawling and long for a comedy, but not undeserved here, Nate Silver’s “Between The Temples” begins with immediate hilarity. Ben Gottlieb (a terrific Jason Schwartzman) is a sad sack cantor living at home.

Within minutes following the opening fade-in of “Gaucho Gaucho,” a trio of individuals can be seen dashing across a barren landscape, each sitting astride their own majestic-looking horse bathed in a sea of black and white with a South American backdrop beautifully framing the moment. It’s an appropriate setup to this documentary about gauchos, the colloquialism used to describe Argentinian cowboys and cowgirls, as the 84-minute runtime serves as little more than an exercise in striking photography mixed with a series of vignettes that’s as slice of life as one’s likely to find.

Jon Hamm has revealed whether he felt any competition with Tom Cruise while the two actors were filming “Top Gun: Maverick.” During his appearance on Friday’s episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” (now streaming on Max), Hamm, 52, said, “What I really learned was that I loved every bit of working with Tom.”“He is the consummate professional. He pushes himself to a level that almost seems superhuman and then invites you,” he continued. “It’s not a competition with him.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Premieres of new and returning TV shows fell sharply last year while the number of movies getting a theatrical wide release went way up. The volume of TV programs in the true crime genre went through the roof and non-English language films are becoming a bedrock of streaming platforms. Those are among the notable content trends documented in the 2023 Year-End Film and TV Report released today by Luminate, the entertainment data and insights firm.

A former The Jeremy Kyle Show star has died 'peacefully' in her sleep.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jodie Foster graced the cover of Time magazine in 1991 when she was 28 years old and set to direct her first feature, “Little Man Tate.” She said at the time that “this is not a business that is kind to women” who aspire to be directors, but her tune has changed 32 years later. “Sometimes I read things I said in my 20s and I’m like, really? But that’s a pretty good one,” she recently told Time in 2023 during an interview for her role on HBO’s “True Detective: Night Country.” “When I was young, there were really no American women directors, maybe a few,” she said. “I didn’t think I was allowed to be a director.

Oppenheimer has won big at this year’s Critics Choice Awards, but actor Cillian Murphy missed out on receiving the award for Best Actor in one of the main upsets of the night.Christopher Nolan’s epic film about the father of the atomic bomb took home eight awards in total. Nolan earned the award for Best Director and Best Picture, while the film also saw Robert Downey Jr win the award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Lewis Strauss, the former head of the US Atomic Energy Commission.Murphy lost out at the awards however to Paul Giamatti, who won Best Actor for his turn in The Holdovers. Collecting his award for best director, Nolan said: “To mangle a quote from Sir Isaac Newton, ‘If I appear tall it’s because I stand on the shoulders of giants’ – the particular giants I am standing on is Kai (Bird) and Marty (Sherwin) who wrote the incredible book American Prometheus and spent 25 years doing it.“I thank you Kai for trusting me with your work and Marty, unfortunately he left us before I was able to show him the final script, but Kai your constant reassurances once you saw the film that he would have approved meant the world to me.”Downey Jr meanwhile used his acceptance speech for Best Supported Actor to take joking aim at the critics who have reviewed him negatively in the past.He said: “I was thinking this morning, I just love critics… you know, they’ve given me such beautiful feedback, really just so many great moments, and some of it is so poetic.

EXCLUSIVE: Independent Talent, the London talent agency to stars including Claire Foy and Daniel Craig, had a bright financial year but has warned of storm clouds ahead after the U.S. strikes.

Puck News. The new installment would see the “Mission Impossible” star, 61, return to his role of naval aviator Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, as well as his “Top Gun: Maverick” co-stars Miles Teller and Glen Powell.

The cast of Masters of the Air showed up in force for the Apple TV+ series’ world premiere on Wednesday (January 10) in Los Angeles.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The SAG Awards nominations provided an exciting blend of usual suspects and stunning omissions. For some awards season strategists — particularly the ones behind critically adored films like “Anatomy of a Fall” and “May December” — there’s no choice but to ask, “what happened?” The SAG Awards’ pearl anniversary brought expected mentions for Oscar contenders such as the two summer smash hits “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” leading the tally for all movies with four nominations each. In addition, the crime epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” and the satirical dramedy “American Fiction” managed three mentions.

Marta Balaga As the battle for international feature film Oscar heats up, female directors behind this year’s submissions urge Academy members to stay open-minded. “Many outstanding films won’t be noticed simply because people don’t watch them. Established directors, big production companies or rich distributors are in a better starting position, but I encourage Academy voters to go for bold and diverse choices,” says Estonia’s Anna Hints, who’s behind crowd-pleasing doc “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood.” “The safest choice is not always the best,” echoes Tizza Covi, who co-directed Austrian selection “Vera” with Rainer Frimmel.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Christopher Nolan has begun his healing journey with fitness brand Peloton after one of the acclaimed director’s instructors dissed his movie “Tenet” during a workout class. “Nothing but love for Peloton,” Nolan told Variety backstage at Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony, when asked if he saw instructor Jenn Sherman’s apology for taking issue his 2020 the sci-fi film’s byzantine plot. “But I did not climb on it today.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Top Israeli director Talya Lavie (“Zero Motivation,” “Honeymood”) is developing “Seven Eyes,” a feature film based on the gripping story of the female lookout soldiers who were based at the Israel-Gaza border on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed more than 1,200 Israeli civilians. Entirely staffed by women, that IDF “lookout” unit is stationed by the Nahal Oz Outpost in Southern Israel, near the village which was decimated by Hamas.

It’s not controversial to say the “Star Wars” fandom has its fair share of toxicity, especially when it comes to misogyny and racism. Watching certain segments of the fandom lose their minds over the fact that a woman (Daisy Ridley) was the lead in the most recent films made was shocking and disturbing to watch.

Miley Cyrus, which was released in January and went on to spend 10 weeks at the top of the singles charts. Other female acts who dominated the singles chart included Dua Lipa, Kenya Grace, Ellie Goulding, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, RAYE and more.More impressively, 48.5 per cent of all songs to reach the Top 10 in 2023 were released by women – a milestone which meant it was female musicians’ highest annual share of Top 10 hits of the century. Check out the 10 best-selling singles of the year overall below.1. Miley Cyrus – ‘Flowers’2. Dave & Central Cee – ‘Sprinter’3. RAYE ft 070 Shake – ‘Escapism’4. Taylor Swift – ‘Anti-Hero’5. Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding – ‘Miracle’6. Rema ft Selena Gomez – ‘Calm Down’7. SZA – ‘Kill Bill’8. PinkPantheress ft Ice Spice – ‘Boy’s A Liar Pt. 2’9. Harry Styles – ‘As It Was’10. Libianca – ‘People’As for albums, The Guardian reported that the last 12 months marked the ninth year of growth for the British music industry, with sales and streams increasing by 10 per cent (equivalent to 182.8million albums) and streaming hitting a record high with 179.6billion over the year.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Despite the box office success of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Elizabeth Banks’ “Cocaine Bear,” female directors are not getting the same opportunities in Hollywood as their male counterparts. At the same time, major studios, which pledged to reexamine their employment practices in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, fail to produce many films from people of color. That’s the stark findings of a new report by USC Annenberg’s Inclusion Initiative, which calls the entertainment industry’s pledges to support inclusion “performative acts” and “not real steps towards fostering change.” It’s the second report in as many days to find that despite some important box office milestones for female filmmakers — “Barbie” was both the year’s most successful film and the highest-grossing movie ever directed by a woman — studios still give their highest-profile gigs to male directors.

Austin Butler landed a highly coveted role in Hollywood when he was cast to bring Elvis Presley to life in Baz Luhrmann‘s biopic Elvis, and he faced stiff competition to book the Oscar-nominated role.

Austin Butler and Kaia Gerber celebrated Christmas together with a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.